Normally, the formed stack is removed from the screw push device using an output conveyor tangent to the core of the screw push device; and the stack, formed as described above, is transferred from the screw push device to the output conveyor by extracting means comprising pushers moving back and forth through the conveyor channel and aligned with the output conveyor.
The above method involves several drawbacks, on account of the pushers having to perform a forward and return movement through the conveyor channel without interfering with the packets in the next stack moving up along the conveyor channel.
Moreover, in known methods and structures of the type described above, the output conveyor is always positioned tangent to the core of the screw push device, thus invariably resulting in a relatively bulky structure.